WHILE making calls or texting behind the wheel is certainly a “Deadly distraction” (The Star, Nov 22), not many realise that using a hands-free phone can be just as distracting.

The misconception that “having conversations using hands-free mobile phone is safe” is prevalent among the public across the world regardless of the culture and scientific literacy level of the society.

The explanation lies in a psychological concept dubbed “attentional blink” by professor of visual cognition Jane Raymond (University of Birmingham, England) in 1992. According to Professor Raymond, there is a “lag time” between two visual stimuli (for example the screen of your mobile phone and the traffic light). The duration of lag time can be more than half a second (depending on one’s mental and physical states). Any stimulus that appears within this half-a-second duration will not be detected. In other words, one is temporarily blind during the lag time due to limitations in the information-processing ability of a normal human brain.

This concept can also be applied to stimulus that activates other senses such as touch, taste, hearing and smell, as well as internal stimuli like happiness and anxiety.

Now we know why texting or calling while driving is dangerous. Additionally, according to Dr Graham Hole (University of Sussex, England) whose study was published in the Transportation Research journal in June 2016, using a hands-free mobile phone can be equally distracting.

As explained by the attentional blink concept, using a hands-free phone while driving results in competition between two stimuli (talking and observing the road conditions) for the processing power of the brain.

Imagine a driver who is chatting with his girlfriend on his hands-free mobile phone being asked what he had for breakfast. While parts of his brain-processing resources are busy focusing on the road conditions in front of him, others would be diverted to the process of recalling the roti canai or teh tarik he had at the mamak stall. Images of the food, or the taste and smell of it, would probably pop up in his mind, causing a mental distraction that could increase his risk of becoming involved in a mishap.

This explains why using mobile devices while driving slows down a driver’s reaction time.

A quote attributed to Albert Einstein says: “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

Similarly, using the mobile phone while driving is simply not giving either the driving or the conversation the attention it deserves.

These studies suggest that using hands-free mobile phones while driving is equally distracting and therefore dangerous. Perhaps the best thing to do before starting the engine is to put the phone where we can’t reach it, or simply switch it off!

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by The Star

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